Vlad the Impaler - Bucharest, Romania
Posted by: 
Metro2
N 44° 25.792 E 026° 06.071
35T E 428460 N 4920012
Vlad the Impaler, a folk hero in Romania was the inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula.
Waymark Code: WMQ8CF
Location: Romania
Date Posted: 01/08/2016
Views: 1
This sculpture is located in Bucharest's Old Court.
It depicts the ruler in long bust form...down almost to his waist...but without arms. The life-sized figure is middle-aged with long hair and wears a cape and a helmet of sorts. It is set on a marble pedestal about 5 feet high.
Wikipedia's page for the Old Court (
visit link) has an additional photo of the work.
Wikipedia (
visit link) informs us:
"Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia (1431–1476/77), was a member of the House of Dracule?ti, a branch of the House of Basarab, also known, using his patronymic, as Vlad Draculea or Vlad Dracula (Old Church Slavonic: ????? ???????). He was posthumously dubbed Vlad the Impaler (modern Romanian: Vlad ?epe?, pronounced ['vlad 't?sepe?])
He was a three-time Voivode of Wallachia, ruling mainly from 1456 to 1462, the period of the incipient Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. His father, Vlad II Dracul, was a member of the Order of the Dragon, which was founded to protect Christianity in Eastern Europe. Vlad III is revered as a folk hero in Romania and Bulgaria for his protection of the Romanians and Bulgarians both north and south of the Danube. Following his raids on the Ottomans, a significant number of Bulgarian common folk and remaining boyars resettled north of the Danube to Wallachia and recognized his leadership.
As the cognomen "The Impaler" suggests, his practice of impaling his enemies is part of his historical reputation.[2] During his lifetime, his reputation for excessive cruelty spread abroad, to Germany and elsewhere in Europe. The name of the vampire Count Dracula in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula was inspired by Vlad's patronymic and reputation."